A Washington company is creating $5,500 prefab tiny homes that can be setup in under one hour to help solve the homelessness crisis

pallet shelters tiny home homeless — The Shelter 64.
Pallet

Pallet is building tiny homes for people who have lost their homes due to natural and personal disasters.
Like other tiny home makers, Pallet saw an uptick in popularity in 2020.
Pallet's shelters are now being used at several tiny home villages to house the unhoused.
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Expensive tiny homes have been in high demand since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. But on the opposite end of the housing spectrum, a tiny home maker specializing in personal units for people who are unhoused has also seen a surge in interest.

Chandler Street Tiny Home Village homeless pallet los angeles — The Chandler Street Tiny Home Village.
Brittany Chang/Insider

Pallet, a social purpose company, creates shelters for people facing homelessness as a result of natural and personal disasters.

These personal tiny homes can be set up in multiples to create small communities, allowing occupants to have safety and privacy away from larger community shelter buildings.

"What we felt was really missing from the housing spectrum was a dignified shelter option that honored their individuality and allowed them to have autonomy in their rehabilitation process," Amy King, founder and CEO of Pallet, told Insider in January.

a white Paller shelter — The Alexandria Park Tiny Home Village in Los Angeles.
Brittany Chang/Insider

The company's primary customer base is municipalities, although it's received orders from nonprofits, religious organizations, and people who own plots of land.

a white and a yellow Pallet shelter above a painted black and yellow floor — The Alexandria Park Tiny Home Village in Los Angeles.
Brittany Chang/Insider

According to King, while the tiny home community concept has been present for some time now, it's definitely become more of a trend as of late.

multi colored Pallet shelters on multi colored floors — The Alexandria Park Tiny Home Village in Los Angeles.
Brittany Chang/Insider

Like other tiny home makers, Pallet first started seeing an uptick in interest in March 2020.

However, when early October 2020 hit, municipalities started realizing they would need individual shelters for people without homes during COVID-19-plagued wintertime.

rows of tiny homes painted different colorful designs — The Arroyo Seco Tiny Homes Village in Highland Park, California.
Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission

This realization then created a second wave of Pallet interest in the same year.

The units were initially designed to serve as shelters for people who had lost their homes due to natural disasters, such as fires.

However, the company started opening its scope of potential occupants when homelessness began reaching a similar "disaster emergency level," according to King.

Despite the potential to capitalize off of the tiny home boom, Pallet currently does not sell any of its units to one-off costumers looking for a backyard tiny home.

"Right now, we are heavily focused on the humanitarian crisis in front of us," King said. "We will not stop until homelessness has ended in this country, so that's where we're focusing our attention for the time being."

In 2020, Pallet built over 1,500 new beds across the US for use in states like California, Minnesota, Texas, and Hawaii.

Source: Pallet

And this year, Los Angeles opened a collection of six Pallet-based tiny home villages to house the city's the unhoused population.

The Alexandria Park Tiny Home Village in Los Angeles.

Brittany Chang/Insider

Source: Insider

The villages temporarily house hundreds of unhoused Los Angeles residents while providing on-site social services like mental health treatment, job resources, and case managers to help its residents find permanent homes.

rows of Pallet shelters that have been personalized with flowers, decor — The tiny homes at the Chandler Street Tiny Home Village.
Brittany Chang/Insider

It took Pallet five or six different iterations before it settled on this final design.

It currently offers two shelter sizes: the 64-square-foot Pallet 64, and the 100-square-foot Pallet 100. Prices start at almost $5,500 and $9,000, respectively.

The sleeping cabins consist of an aluminum frame and fiber-reinforced plastic composite walls.

These walls are insulated, but the home also comes with a heater and an air conditioner.

Like any home, the shelters are equipped with safety elements like a lockable door, a smoke detector, and a carbon monoxide monitor.

"For people who've experienced trauma, having a locking door can sometimes become the difference between accepting help getting off the street and making a step towards permanent supportive housing," Rowan Vansleve, CFO of Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission — the nonprofit running these villages — told Insider in an interview in April.

A Pallet shelter that's been personalized with flowers, decor — The tiny homes at the Chandler Street Tiny Home Village.
Brittany Chang/Insider

Source: Insider

The shelters can accommodate up to four beds with a folding bunk bed system, although the beds can optionally be replaced with desks.

In terms of storage, the tiny home has shelves and room for under-bed storage.

The structure can withstand up to 100 mile-per-hour winds and manage up to 25 pounds per square-foot of snow.

If that's not enough, Pallet also has an "extreme weather" version originally developed for a Hood River, Oregon location.

However, none of the homes have bathrooms. This was intentional: the company wants its units to serve as "temporary stabilizing shelters" while its occupants wait for a more permanent option.

Also, plumbing is expensive and more difficult to maintain, which would have driven the tiny home's price up.

Instead, Pallet has a created separate prefab bathrooms, community rooms, hand-washing stations, and service offices to compliments its tiny homes.

Source: Pallet

The units have a lifespan of more than 10 years, but many people only reside in these tiny homes for months at a time.

The units are also easy to clean and sanitize in between occupants, which is key given the homelessness emergency during the COVID-19 pandemic.

And unlike permanent "congregate" shelter options that could take years to build, Pallet's prefabricated tiny homes can be setup in under an hour, while a full village can be created within 10 days.

Source: Pallet

This allows Pallet to quickly and inexpensively address the homelessness crisis in the US.

While Pallet specializes in making individual shelters, the company recognizes the need for community shelters as well.

"Unfortunately, the homelessness crisis in this country has escalated to a point that we need all products," King said. "Each person needs something different, and we need to have a diversified opportunity for people to get their needs met."

Homelessness isn't the only issue Pallet is tackling.

The Washington-based company's "social purpose" title means it serves as a combination between a for-profit and a non-profit organization.

As a result, profits made are put back into the company's two main missions: stopping "unsheltered homelessness," and creating a "nontraditional workforce."

To the latter point, 90% of Pallet's employees have once faced addiction, incarceration, or homelessness.

Pallet offers these employees workforce and "life skills" training, which includes teaching them how to start a bank account or get an ID.

Source: Pallet

"If we didn't have them, I don't think we'd be nearly [as successful]," King said. "They're not just workers for us, they're helping lead the concept here."

Read the original article on Business Insider

source https://www.businessinsider.com/pallet-prefab-tiny-homes-for-the-homeless-2021-1

A Washington company is creating $5,500 prefab tiny homes that can be setup in under one hour to help solve the homelessness crisis — take a look

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